Generally, in a vehicle such as a minivan, the height of the floor of the vehicle from the ground is set relatively high. Therefore, an entrance of the vehicle is provided with a step having a lower height than the floor of the vehicle. Patent Document 1 describes a vehicle step device that includes a movable step having not only a slide function but also an elevating function for further enhancing ingress/egress ease into or from the vehicle. When the entrance is opened by a vehicle door, the movable step is moved to a position closer to the ground, thereby reducing a vertical difference between the movable step and the ground, i.e., thereby reducing the height of the first step of a passenger who steps on the movable step from the ground at the time of getting on the vehicle, and the height of the last step of a passenger who steps on the ground from the movable step at the time of getting off the vehicle.
However, although the vehicle step device described in Patent Document 1 includes the movable step for making it possible for aged people or people with lower limb disabilities to easily get on or off the vehicle, it is necessary to manually deploy the movable step. Therefore, for example, when there is no helper, a person who gets on or off the vehicle must operate the step in a state where the person bends his or her knees at the time of getting on the vehicle or the person extends his or her hand to the step located lower than a floor surface of the vehicle at the time of getting off the vehicle. That is, an action that is more difficult than ingress/egress motion is required.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-72466